America's "War on Terrorism"

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, 2005, paperback

p6
Under the Bush administration, the military and intelligence apparatus
has clearly taken over the reins of foreign policy in close consultation
with Wall Street. With key decisions taken behind closed doors
at the CIA and the Pentagon, "civilian political institutions"
including the US Congress increasingly become a facade. While
the illusion of a "functioning democracy" prevails in
the eyes of public opinion, the US President has become a mere
public relations figurehead.

p6
Under the Bush administration, the military and intelligence apparatus
has clearly taken over the reins of foreign policy in close consultation
with Wall Street. With key decisions taken behind closed doors
at the CIA and the Pentagon, "civilian political institutions"
including the US Congress increasingly become a facade.

p7
Under the New World Order, military planners in the State Department,
the Pentagon and the CIA call the shots on foreign policy.

... The powers behind this [New World
Order] system are those of the global banks and financial institutions,
the military-industrial complex, the oil and energy giants, the
biotech and pharmaceutical conglomerates and the powerful media
and communications giants, which fabricate the news and overtly
influence the course of world events by blatantly distorting the
facts.

p7
Under the Reagan administration, senior officials in the State
Department had used the proceeds of illicit narcotics trade to
finance the supply of weapons to the Nicaraguan Contras.

p8
Since September 11, state resources have been redirected towards
financing the military-industrial complex, while social programs
have been slashed. Government budgets have been restructured and
tax revenues have been channeled towards beefing up the police
and the domestic security apparatus.

p14
The hidden agenda behind [George W.] Bush's declaration of an
"axis of evil" (Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Syria)
is to ... provide various justifications for direct military interventions
by the US in different parts of the world.

p14
In the US, Canada and Great Britain, and also in most countries
of the European Union, the legal fabric of society has been overhauled.
Based on the repeal of the Rule of Law, the foundations of an
authoritarian state apparatus have emerged with little or no organized
opposition from the mainstay of civil society.

p65
The "Anglo-American axis" in defense and foreign policy
is the driving force behind the military operations in Central
Asia and Middle East. This rapprochement between London and Washington
is consistent with the integration of British and American business
interests in the areas of banking, oil and the defense industry.

p100
China has been encircled: The US military is present in the South
China Sea and the Taiwan Straits, in the Korean Peninsula and
the Sea of Japan, as well as in the heartland of Central Asia
and on the Western border of China's Xinjiang-Uigur autonomous
region. US military bases have been set up in Uzbekistan in Tajikistan
and in Kyrgyztan.

p100
The 1999 war in Yugoslavia contributed to reinforcing strategic,
military and intelligence ties between Washington and London.

p101
The hidden agenda behind the Anglo-American "trans-Atlantic
bridge" is to eventually displace the Franco-German military
conglomerates and ensure the dominance of the US military industrial
complex (in alliance with Britain's major defense contractors).

Moreover, this integration in the area
of defense production has been matched by increased cooperation
between the CIA and Britain's MI6 in the sphere of intelligence
and covert operations, not to mention the joint operations of
British and US Special Forces.

p103
The European common currency system has a direct bearing on strategic
and political divisions. London's decision not to adopt the common
European currency is consistent with the integration of British
financial and banking interests with those of Wall Street, as
well as the Anglo-American alliance in the oil industry and weapons
production.

p119
Under the New World Order, the pursuit of profit hinges upon political
"manipulations' the bribing of officials and the routine
exercise of covert intelligence operations on behalf of powerful
corporate interests. The US-sponsored paramilitary armies in different
parts of the world are trained and equipped by private mercenary
outfits on contract to the Pentagon.

Ultimately, the conduct of war, rather
than being controlled by the state, is subordinated to the pursuit
of private economic interests.

While interfacing with Wall Street, intelligence
agencies, including the CIA, have also developed undercover ties
with powerful criminal syndicates involved in the drug trade.
These syndicates, through the process of money laundering, have
also invested heavily in legitimate business undertakings.

Under the New World Order, the demarcation
between "organized capital" and "organized crime"
is blurred. The restructuring of global trade and finance tends
to favor the concurrent "globalization" of the criminal
economy, which is intricately tied into the corporate establishment.
In turn, the state apparatus is criminalized. Amply documented,
senior policy-makers in the Bush administration in charge of foreign
policy have links to various drug cartels.

p119
Under the New World Order, the demarcation between "organized
capital" and "organized crime" is blurred. The
restructuring of global trade and finance tends to favor the concurrent
"globalization" of the criminal economy, which is intricately
tied into the corporate establishment.

p119
While securing corporate control over extensive oil reserves and
pipeline routes along the Eurasian corridor on behalf of the AngloAmerican
oil giants, Washington's ultimate objective is to eventually destabilize
and then colonize both China and Russia. This means the takeover
of their national financial systems and the control over monetary
policy, leading eventually to the imposition of the US dollar
as the national currency.

p125
The "war on terrorism" is a lie.

... Acts of war are heralded as "humanitarian
interventions" geared towards restoring "democracy"

Military occupation and the killing of
civilians are presented as "peace-keeping operations'

The derogation of civil liberties - by
imposing the "anti-terrorist legislation" - is portrayed
as a means to providing "domestic security" and upholding
civil liberties.

Meanwhile, expenditures on health and
education are curtailed to finance the military-industrial complex
and the police state.

p126
We are fast moving towards a totalitarian system in which the
institutions of war, police repression and economic policy interface
with one another... The corporate media is an instrument of this
totalitarian system.

p128
To convey the illusion of democracy [in America], "the globalizers"
must "fabricate dissent"... they must create and finance
their own political opposition. In order to appear legitimate,
they must actively encourage the type of "criticism"
which does not challenge "their right to rule"

This libertarian "counter-discourse"
- which serves to disarm a genuine mass movement against war and
globalization - constitutes part of the foundations of this evolving
totalitarian system. Leaders of trade union confederations and
mainstream NGOs, together with selected "academics"
and critics, are invited to participate in policy formulation
together with bankers, corporate executives and politicians.

The ploy is to selectively handpick civil
society leaders "whom we can trust" and integrate them
into a "dialogue' The idea is to cut them off from their
rank and file, make them feel that they are "global citizens"
acting on behalf of their fellow citizens, but make them act in
a way which serves the interests of the corporate establishment:

... Once the fundamental premise that
the US Administration is committed to curbing international terrorism
is accepted, these leftist intellectuals and civil society critics
are invited to express their "reservations" regarding
America's conduct of the war, the impacts on civilians or their
humanitarian concerns regarding the derogation of the Rule of
Law.

In this ritual, the main justification
for waging the war, which is a complete falsehood, is never questioned
despite documented evidence that the "war on terrorism"
is a fabrication.

... While the "globalizers"
are subjected to "constructive criticism", their legitimate
right to rule remains unchallenged. What this "left accommodation"
and "civil society mingling" does is to reinforce the
[control] the military-intelligence elites and the corporate establishment,
while weakening the real protest movement.

More importantly, "left accommodation"
splits up the protest movement. It divides the anti-war movement
from the antiglobalization movement. It prevents the development
of a broader movement against the American Empire. The large trade
unions and the mainstream non-governmental organizations, by failing
to denounce the falsehoods behind the "war on terrorism'
have contributed unwittingly to the failure of a real opposition
movement being mounted against the New World Order.

p135
Red Herring: an irrelevant topic presented in order to divert
attention from the original issue.

p137
The 9/11 terrorists did not act on their own volition. The suicide
hijackers were instruments in a carefully planned intelligence
operation. The evidence confirms that Al Qaeda is supported by
Pakistan's ISI. Amply documented, the ISI owes its existence to
the CIA.

... The money used to finance the 9/11
attacks had allegedly been "wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed
Atta from Pakistan, by Ahmad Umar Sheikh, at the instance of [ISI
Chief] General Mahmoud [Ahmad]'.

... General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged
"money man" behind 9/11, was in the US when the attacks
occurred.

p151
The US intelligence apparatus has created its own terrorist organizations.
And at the same time, it creates its own terrorist warnings concerning
the terrorist organizations which it has itself created. In turn,
it has developed a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism
program "to go after" these terrorist organizations.

Counterterrorism and war propaganda are
intertwined. The propaganda apparatus feeds disinformation into
the news chain. The terror warnings must appear to be "genuine"
The objective is to present the terror groups as "enemies
of America'

One of the main objectives of war propaganda
is to fabricate an enemy.

p151
The entire National Security doctrine centers on the existence
of an "outside enemy", which is threatening the Homeland.

p153
To sustain "the War on Terrorism" agenda, fabricated
realities funneled on a day to day basis into the news chain,
must become indelible truths which form part of a broad political
and media consensus. In this regard, the corporate media is an
instrument of this evolving totalitarian system.

p154
The most powerful component of any fear and disinformation campaign
rests with the CIA, which secretly subsidizes authors, journalists
and media critics, through a web of private foundations and CIA-sponsored
front organizations.

... Disinformation is routinely "planted"
by CIA operatives in the newsroom of major dailies, magazines
and TV channels. Outside public relations firms are often used
to create "fake stories":

p154
Chaim Kupferberg, "The Propaganda Preparation for 9/11",
Centre for Research on Globalization, June 2002

A relatively few well-connected correspondents
provide the scoops, that get the coverage in the relatively few
mainstream news sources, where the parameters of debate are set
and the "official reality" is consecrated for the bottom
feeders in the news chain."

p156
Remarks by President Bush in Trenton, New Jersey, Welcome Army
National Guard Aviation Support Facility, Trenton, New Jersey,
23 September 2002.

[The United States is] under attack because
we love freedom . ... And as long as we love freedom and love
liberty and value every human life, they're going to try to hurt
us.

p157
Once the core assumptions of a disinformation campaign have been
embedded in the news chain, both the printed press and network
TV establish their own self-sustaining routine of fabricating
the news.

p161
Preparations for compulsory smallpox vaccination were initiated
in 2003 in response to a presumed threat of a biological weapons
attack on US soil. The vaccination program - which had been the
object of intense media propaganda - contributed to creating an
atmosphere of insecurity

... The hidden agenda was clear. How best
to discredit the antiwar movement and maintain the legitimacy
of the State? Create conditions which instill fear and hatred,
present the rulers as "guardians of the peace" committed
to weeding out terrorism and preserving democracy.

p215
Observer-Dispatch, Utica, New York, December 9, 2004

Attorney General [Alberto] Gonzales "commissioned"
the infamous Justice Department memo of 2002 that asserted President
Bush's right to order torture, even redefining the meaning of
torture not to include any pain short of organ failure, death
or permanent psychological damage. This prompted other legal decisions
approving such interrogation practices as "stress positions"
and intimidation with dogs, leading then to the abyss of abuses
at Abu Ghraib.

p215
In December 2004, the Justice Department ordered the drafting
of a new "legal opinion" on "permissible US military
interrogation techniques" to replace that of August 2002.

... "Legal opinions" drafted
on the behest of war criminals are being used to "legalize"
torture and redefine justice.

War criminals legitimately occupy positions
of authority, which enable them to redefine the contours of the
judicial system and the process of law enforcement.

It provides them with a mandate to decide
"who are the criminals' when in fact they are the criminals.

In other words, what we are dealing with
is the criminalization of the State and its various institutions
including the criminalization of justice.

The truth is twisted and turned upside
down. State propaganda builds a consensus within the Executive,
the US Congress and the Military. This consensus is then ratified
by the judicial, through a process of outright legal manipulation.

Media disinformation instills within the
consciousness of Americans that somehow the use of torture, the
existence of concentration camps, extrajudicial assassinations
of "rogue enemies" all of which are happening-are, "under
certain circumstances" "acceptable" and perfectly
"legal" because the Justice Department's Office of Legal
Counsel (OLC) says "it's legit".

The existence of an illusive outside enemy
who is threatening the Homeland is the cornerstone of the propaganda
campaign. The latter consists in galvanizing US citizens not only
in favor of "the war on terrorism' but in support of a social
order which upholds the legitimate use of torture, directed against
"terrorists", as a justifiable means to preserving human
rights, democracy; freedom, etc.

p216
"The war on the terrorism" is said to be in the public
interest. Moreover, anybody who questions its practices-which
now includes torture, political assassination and concentration
camps - is liable to be arrested under the antiterrorist legislation.

p216
The Inquisition, which started in the 12th century and lasted
for more than four hundred years was a consensus imposed by the
ruling feudal social order. Its purpose was to maintain and sustain
those in authority.

The Inquisition had a network of religious
courts, which eventually evolved into a system of political and
social control.

The underlying principles governing the
courts were straightforward, apart from the rhetoric, similar
to today's procedures:

Those who refused to recant and give up
their heresy, were burned alive. Moreover, no lawyers were allowed,
because it was considered heresy to defend a heretic:

p216
The Inquisition, which started in the 12th century and lasted
for more than four hundred years was a consensus imposed by the
ruling feudal social order. Its purpose was to maintain and sustain
those in authority. The Inquisition had a network of religious
courts, which eventually evolved into a system of political and
social control.

Heresy cannot be destroyed unless heretics
are destroyed and ... their defenders and [supporters] are destroyed,
and this is effected in two ways: they are converted to the true
catholic faith, or burned [alive].

p219
Under an inquisitorial system, the public does not question the
wisdom of the rulers. Citizens are compelled into accepting the
political consensus. They must endorse the acts of f torture ordered
by those who rule in their name.

p219
Political assassinations [by the United States] are no longer
conducted as covert operations. The intent to assassinate is announced,
debated in the US Congress, presented as a safeguard of democracy.
In turn, the alleged terrorists are sent to concentration camps
and this information is public.

p220
Increasingly, the military-intelligence establishment (rather
than the State Department, the White House and the US Congress)
is calling the shots on US foreign policy.

p220
The AngloAmerican oil giants, Wall Street, the powerful media
giants and the Washington think tanks are operating discretely
behind the scenes, setting the next stage in this ongoing militarization
of civilian institutions.

p228
Drug trafficking constitutes the third biggest global commodity
in cash terms after oil and the arms trade. Supported by powerful
interests, heroin is a multibillion-dollar business, which requires
a steady and secure commodity flow. One of the hidden objectives
of the war [in Afghanistan] was effectively to restore the CIA
sponsored drug trade to its historical levels and exert direct
control over the drug routes.

p228
One of the hidden objectives of the war [in Afghanistan] was effectively
to restore the CIA sponsored drug trade to its historical levels
and exert direct control over the drug routes.

p228
The global narcotics market is estimated by the UN to be of the
order of $400-500 billion a year.

p229
What distinguishes narcotics from legal commodity trade is that
narcotics constitute a major source of wealth formation not only
for organized crime but also for the US intelligence apparatus,
which also represents a powerful actor in the spheres of finance
and banking.

p229
Intelligence agencies and powerful business syndicates, which
are allied with organized crime, are competing for the strategic
control over the heroin routes. The multi-billion dollar revenues
of narcotics are deposited in the Western banking system. Most
of the large international banks, together with their affiliates
in the offshore banking havens, launder large amounts of narco-dollars.

This trade can only prosper if the main
actors involved in narcotics have "political friends in high
places". Legal and illegal undertakings are increasingly
intertwined; the dividing line between "business people"
and criminals is blurred.

p229
Behind the trade in narcotics, there are powerful business and
financial interests.

p229
The productive system underlying the Golden Crescent heroin market
is protected by a US-sponsored regime in Kabul. US foreign policy
serves these interests. Geopolitical and military control over
the multibillion dollar drug routes constitutes a (hidden) strategic
objective, comparable, in some regards, to the militarization
of oil pipeline routes out of Central Asia.

p230
The UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) estimates
that in 2003, opium production in
Afghanistan generated "an income of one billion US dollars
for farmers and US $1.3 billion for traffickers, equivalent to
over half of its national income.

p230
The narcotics trade is characterized by a hierarchy of prices,
from the farming price in Afghanistan, upwards to the final retail
price on the streets of London, Paris and New York. The street
price is 80-100 times the price paid to the farmer.

p232
Slightly more than a billion dollars gross revenue to farmers
in Afghanistan (2004) would generate global narcotics earnings
of the order of 90 billion dollars.

... These global proceeds accrue to business
syndicates, intelligence agencies, organized crime, financial
institutions, wholesalers, retailers, etc., involved directly
or indirectly in the drug trade. In turn, the proceeds are deposited
in Western banks, which constitute an essential mechanism in the
laundering of dirty money.

p233
Money laundering, according to IMF estimates for the 1990s, was
between 590 billion and 1.5 trillion dollars a year, representing
2-5 percent of global GDP.

The proceeds of the drug trade are deposited
in the banking system. Drug money is laundered in the numerous
offshore banking havens in Switzerland, Luxembourg, the British
Channel Islands, the Cayman Islands and some 50 other locations
around the globe. It is here that criminal syndicates involved
in the drug trade and the representatives of the world's largest
commercial banks interact. Dirty money is deposited in these offshore
havens, which are controlled by major Western banks and financial
institutions. The latter, therefore, have a vested interest in
maintaining and sustaining the drug trade.

... Once the money has been laundered,
it can be recycled into bona fide investments not only in real
estate, hotels, etc, but also in other areas such as the services
economy and manufacturing. Dirty and covert money is also funneled
into various financial instruments including speculative stock
exchange transactions (derivatives), primary commodities, stocks
and government bonds.

p234
The proceeds of the [Afghan heroin] trade are the source of wealth
formation outside Afghanistan, largely reaped by powerful financial
and business/criminal interests within Western countries. This
process of wealth accumulation resulting from the drug trade is
sustained and supported by the US "War on Terrorism".
Decisionmaking in the US State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon
is instrumental in supporting this highly profitable multibillion
dollar trade, third in commodity value after oil and the arms
trade.

p240
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the CIA had been running
a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues
that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. The
simulation was held at the CIA Chantilly Virginia Reconnaissance
Office.

... The news concerning the 9/11 Chantilly
aircraft crashing simulation was hushed up. It was not made public
at the time. It was revealed almost a year later, in the form
of an innocuous announcement of a Homeland Security Conference.

p242
[Regarding the events of 9/11] we know from carefully documented
research that:
* There were stand-down orders on 9/11. The US Air force did not
intervene.
* There was a cover-up of the WTC and Pentagon investigations.
The WTC rubble was removed before it could be examined. The plane
debris at the Pentagon are unaccounted for.
*There were reports of significant financial gains made as a result
of 9/11, from insider trading in the days prior to 9/11.
* Mystery surrounds WTC Building 7, which collapsed or was "pulled"
down in the afternoon of September 11, 2001.

p311
In theory, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 adopted in the wake
of the US civil war, prevents the military from intervening in
civilian police and judicial functions. This law has been central
to the functioning of constitutional government.

While the Posse Comitatus Act is still
on the books, in practice the legislation is no longer effective
in preventing the militarization of civilian institutions.

Both the legislation inherited from the
Clinton administration and the post 9/11 PATRIOT Acts I and II
have blurred] the line between military and civilian roles. They
allow the military to intervene in judicial and law enforcement
activities even in the absence of an emergency situation.

p311
The Center for Law and Military Operations, based in Charlottesville,
Virginia has published a "useful" Handbook entitled
"Domestic Operational Law for Judge Advocates," which
prepares for new "law enforcement" missions for the
Military.

The Center for Law and Military Operations
has published a Handbook entitled "Domestic Operational Law
for Judge Advocates". According to Frank Morales, the Handbook:

... attempts to solidify, from a legal
standpoint, Pentagon penetration of America and it's 'operations
other than war,' essentially providing the US corporate elite
with lawful justification for its class war against the American
people, specifically those that resist the "new world law
and order" agenda.

p326
On the 7th of July 2005 at 8.50 am, three bombs exploded simultaneously
on underground trains in central London. The fourth explosion
occurred approximately one hour later on a double-decker bus in
Tavistock Square, close to King's Cross. Tragically, 56 people
were killed and more than seven hundred people were injured. The
alleged suicide bombers were reported to have died in the blast.

The explosions coincided with the opening
sessions of the Group of Eight (G-8) meetings at Gleneagles, Scotland,
hosted by Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Without supporting evidence, the attacks
were presented as an assault on the "civilized world"
by "Islamic terrorists".

... Within hours of the 7/7 London bomb
attacks, and prior to the conduct of a police investigation, the
British authorities had already identified "Enemy Number
One" as the mastermind behind the 7/7 attacks.

... The 7/7 attacks served to distract
public attention from the broader issue of the war, which had
resulted in more than 100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq since the
outset of the occupation.

The London 7/7 attacks provided a new
legitimacy to those who had ordered the illegal invasion of Iraq.
They contributed to significantly weakening the antiwar and civil
rights movements, while triggering an atmosphere of fear and racial
hatred across Britain and the European Union.

p338
A fictional "scenario" of multiple bomb attacks on London's
underground took place at exactly the same time as the bomb attack
on July 7, 2005.

Peter Power, Managing Director of Visor
Consultants, a private firm on contract to the London Metropolitan
Police, described in a BBC interview how he had organized and
conducted the anti-terror drill, on behalf of an unnamed business
client.

The fictional scenario was based on simultaneous
bombs going off at exactly the same time at the underground stations
where the real attacks were occurring:

POWER: At half past nine this morning
[July 7, 2005] we were actually running an exercise for a company
of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs
going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened
this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck
standing up right now.

HOST: To get this quite straight, you
were running an exercise to see how you would cope with this and
it happened while you were running the exercise?

POWER: Precisely, and it was about half
past nine this morning, we planned this for a company and for
obvious reasons I don't want to reveal their name but they're
listening and they'll know it. And we had a room full of crisis
managers for the first time they'd met and so within five minutes
we made a pretty rapid decision that this is the real one and
so we went through the correct drills of activating crisis management
procedures to jump from slow time to quick time thinking and so
on.

Peter Power is a former senior Scotland
Yard official specializing in counterterrorism.

p341
The Israeli embassy had been advised in advance by Scotland Yard
of an impending bomb attack [London, July 7, 2005]:

Just before the blasts, Scotland Yard
called the security officer at the Israeli Embassy to say they
had received warnings of possible attacks, the official said.

p341
Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned by his
embassy not to attend an economic conference organized by the
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in collaboration with the Israeli
embassy and Deutsche Bank.

Netanyahu was staying at the Aidridge
Hotel in Mayfair. The conference venue was a few miles away at
the Great Eastern Hotel close to the Liverpool subway station;
where one of the bomb blasts occurred.

p352
On October 17, 2000, eleven months before 9/11, Blackstone Real
Estate Advisors, of The Blackstone Group, L.P, purchased the participating
mortgage secured by World Trade Center, Building 7.

On April 26, 2001 the Port Authority leased
the WTC for 99 years to Silverstein Properties and Westfield America
Inc.

... This transfer from the New York and
New Jersey Port Authority was tantamount to the privatization
of the WTC Complex. The official press release described it as
"the richest real estate prize in New York City history".

Explicitly included in the agreement was
that Silverstein and Westfield "were given the right to rebuild
the structures if they were destroyed".

In this transaction, Silverstein signed
a rental contract for the WTC over 99 years... Silverstein put
in 14 million dollars of his own money. The annual payment on
the lease was of the order of 115 million dollars.

In the wake of the WTC attacks, Silverstein
sued for some $7.1 billion in insurance money, double the amount
of the value of the 99 year lease.